Rush to Glory: FORMULA 1 Racing's Greatest Rivalry (56 page)

Marlene Knaus was the girlfriend of Austrian actor Curt Jurgens when she first set eyes on Niki Lauda in the summer of 1975. But from that moment, she only had eyes for him, and they were soon engaged and then married, shocking the whole of Europe with their swiftness and Lauda’s cold dismissal of his longtime love, Mariella von Reininghaus.

Niki Lauda was somewhat bemused in Long Beach by the strange orders of his team manager, Daniele Audetto. Audetto told him he had done too much winning and to let his teammate, Clay Regazzoni, take victory this time. Lauda was completely shocked and said to Audetto, “Are you mad? These points will be needed to win the world championship.”

At the Spanish Grand Prix, Niki Lauda put on a very brave face but was wracked with pain from a set of badly broken ribs. He was pumped full of painkilling drugs to enable him to compete.

Niki Lauda felt a real affinity with five-time world champion Juan Manuel Fangio. In America Lauda tried out one of the Mercedes Silver Arrow cars driven by Fangio in his heyday.

James Hunt was recognized as a genuine Formula One star by midseason in 1976. His off-track earnings were growing and overseen by his accountant brother, Peter (left).

Jochen Mass (left) thought he would be team leader of the Marlboro McLaren team in 1976, and so did everyone else. But from the very first race in Brazil, he was blown away by James Hunt, and any such notions were quickly laid to rest.

The McLaren-Ford M23 was magnificently dominant at Jarama in Spain for the 1976 Spanish Grand Prix, with Niki Lauda trailing round in second place. Hunt won on the road and stood on the podium and sprayed the champagne, but he also had to win again in the appeals courtrooms of Paris.

Niki Lauda was the king of Monte Carlo, while James Hunt languished in the also-rans. The new Ferrari 312T2 was an absolutely magnificent car, especially in baking-hot weather, such as at Monaco that year. The temperature seemed to make a huge difference in how the car performed. During the heat wave in Europe in 1976, it over-performed. But in the coolness of the autumn in North America and Asia, it wasn’t so successful.

James Hunt was a sponsor’s dream, and he did more for the Marlboro cigarette brand than any other individual in history. Out of the car, he always had a cigarette in his mouth. Interestingly, he did not smoke Marlboros. Every night he emptied cartons of Rothmans cigarettes into Marlboro packets to keep his sponsors happy.

By midseason, high airboxes had been banned, and Alastair Caldwell came up with a novel twin-intake airbox that met the letter of the regulations.

The Ferrari 312T2 was designed by Mauro Forghieri, who had returned to Ferrari in 1974 to form a triumvirate with Lauda and Luca di Montezemolo to restore Ferrari to the top of Formula One. It was wildly successful and yielded two world championships, which could easily have been four with better luck.